Snow falls over Rock Creek Park in the District earlier today. By CWG photographer Ian Livingston.

(Next update to be between 5:30 and 6:00 a.m. Saturday)

High intensity snowfall has been pasting the metro area for hours now and will continue into tomorrow morning. The combination of the heavy, wet snow and wind is causing scattered power outages throughout the metro region. This storm is just over 1/3 of the way through and conditions will continue to deteriorate overnight. Snow will fall at a rate of 1-2" per hour for at least the next 6-8 hours, probably longer. Winds are likely to increase to around 20 mph, with gusts of 30-40 mph. Fortunately, as temperature continue falling, the consistency of the snow will become a little more powdery, so it will not adhere as well to trees and power lines later at night.

Throughout the region, snowfall totals so far are in the 6-12" range. Sleet has been reported primarily in Fredericksburg and points to the south. In the metro region, thunder has accompanied the snow in some cases and some additional thundersnow is possible in the next few hours.

CWG: not that it really matters at this point because we're all getting plastered.... But curious why only DC and eastern burbs getting blizzard warnings when there is heavy snow-strong wind all around?

Within the past 20 minutes the visibility has dropped considerably here in North Bethesda.... I was able to see about 2000 feet from my high rise to the shopping center down the street, and now it's all a blur... and it's not alcohol related!

Sleet, rain & snow in NW Spotsy. No way I'll c 20", & I'm guessing alot of the area won't c that much. Looks like warm air has moved aloft 4 the time being, which is typical of coastal storms when the temps r border line.

Out in New Carrollton. It's snowing in sheets out here -- precipitation I haven't seen the likes of since I was in the eye of Hurricane Fran as it passed over Raleigh in 1996, I think it was. It's literally snowing so hard it looks like torrential rain. Have not gone out and measured, but looks like it's at least nine inches, possibly as much as a foot. Snow's sticking to everything -- evergreens are really catching it, I've seen branches on the ground. Live on a snow emergency route, but the snow it so deep on the road, looks like they're not even plowing yet. Wind's starting to pick up too. No flickering of power, fingers crossed. Where was the thundersnow reported? I'd like to see some of that.

Just took the dogs out for a trot. Very, very windy to the point where the snow-loving pups were frightened and wanted to come right back inside. Snow was coming down in torrents and sideways. Lamp post in the street was also vibrating something fierce. Also noticed icicles forming from its lantern. This was 10-15 minutes ago in the Bel Pre/Layhill area of northern Silver Spring.

Sheets of snow coming down. Never seen anything quite like it. Visibility is deteriorating quickly in South Arlington. Can no longer see the huge hill (with large condo and apartment complexes) that is just 100 feet away...

Town of Herndon -- Taken shovel in hand @ 4:30, 8 & 10 pm (to clear driveway skirt and adjacent drain). * A plow made two passes around 9pm for a wide path in the middle of the road, leaving a thick white coating.

We shook the low branches on the magnolia and spruce tree twice. Hoping that the power line hangs in there!

Had 8 1/2 inches in Winchester when I measured an hour ago. Wind has shifted, getting some gusts from the east and snow is falling pretty good, if I had to guess probably closer to 10 inches now but I ain't going out to see. Just glad to be home and knocking stuff off the DVR tomorrow...

Here in Fairlington in Arlington, the power went off and on a few times, currently its on, which I am happy about and a little surprised. The snow is pouring down, the real deal, last time I've seen conditions like this was at 8,500 feet on a ski slope - stings the face when gravity is pulling you down the moutain.

Most of those tracks on the sidewalk have been covered up by now - luckily I think people have finally figured out that it's time to go indoors and stay there. The snow is getting grainier and it's getting MUCH windier - it's similar to walking around in a sandstorm. Not pleasant. But really pretty from inside!

CWG Team - Now that the Coastal Low is starting to bomb out in NC. How will this affect the precip shield? Will it backfill towards Roanoke, or just sit and spin over DC. Would love to get your thoughts?

11" on south side of Rockville at 11pm. Blowing snow, visibility ,100yds at times. Saw blue lightning flash a little before 11:00. I think it's going to be hard to get accurate measurements if the wind keeps up!

Teezee, to follow up what Jason said, the blizzard warnings are up along the coastal areas, winds will likely be highest there and more likely to reach blizzard conditions due to the lack of friction over the water allowing for the higher speeds

I think we're getting ripped off here in Old Town ALX. We've got 5" - 6" tops. Of course, the wind is blowing hard off the river, and there may be more accumulation up the hill. The snow has been steady, but I really have not seen any heavy snow at all this evening.

I am amazed by how spotty conditions are. Old Town only has 5 or 6? Right across the bridge in lower Huntington we have approaching a foot and it's coming down hard. Shoveled the walk about an hour ago and we easily have 1.5 inches at least of new snow.

Out the front door just now it's kind of scary, lots of small snowflakes coming down thick. A light wind, guestimate of ~10 mph. Visibility is pretty low, guestimate of 1/4 mile tops looking through the tall trees across the house.

In the battle of man vs snow... snow has won. I've just finished shoveling my driveway for the 3rd time today. I don't think there will be a 4th before I go to bed, and by the time I get up, I'm going to need to ask my neighbor if I can borrow his snow blower. It sounded like it was sleeting out here in Hamilton, but I'm not sure if that was just the sound of the wind blown snow hitting the hood of my jacket.

Wind and snowfall amounts mounting here in Adams Morgan. I had to get up from blogging as I heard a car screeching by, ever slowly, up the slight incline of the road I live on. I thought it was like to smashing into other cars. Tough to go to sleep with all this action going on!

Hey all, just got back from driving around Vienna/Tysons Corner area in my FJ40...roads are pretty bad, Route 7 and 123 included (haven't got many reports about them here). Mostly just plows out and few other SUV's. Visibility is about 30 yards out here I'd say. Side roads are really building up as the plows just can't keep up. Drove past one abandoned plow in a ditch also.

I know it's still early, but I just have to say, I'm very impressed with the accuracy of the CWG (and NWS) forecast to this point. Especially with the forecast of the mixing/all snow line, which has been pretty much exactly where they said it would be, so far. They stood firm in their forecast, even when Pat Michaels challenged them. Good (early) job guys!

I can't get over this wind. It's whistling between buildings! I would guess-timate we have 7-8 inches near Eisenhower Ave from looking out my window. Looking forward to my morning walk down into Old Town Alex.

However, starting to worry a little that I should have picked up more food at the grocery store... I feel like we might be "stranded" for longer than I originally thought. And, even though I can walk to a grocery store I'm curious as to how their shipments will get in.

Went for a walk around Annandale with family. Utterly fabulous! We had 9 inches at about 11:00. But about that time the wind really picked up as did the snow. I estimate it is coming down at about 2 inches an hour currently. Was shoveling driveway and had to come in. Temp is 30. Still a very wet snow.

here in Beautiful Downtown Petworth, I just measured 10 inches and blowing a gale. Power is fine so far...usually is. Hope it stays that way.
Now on Rye and Seltzer number, oh, three, I think, and enjoying the snow.

New solution to make sure the snow doesn't build up on the power lines -- throw snowballs at them from afar!

This is unreal. 4-5 shovel attempts this evening -- can't imagine what we'll see early AM. Figure I have to stay up a while for this -- when all is said and done, this will surpass 83 and 96 Blizzards on Long Island as my most memorable snowstorms.

a couple of light flickers here in SW DC, miserable visibility (I live 5 blocks from the nationals stadium and can't see it at all), and one flash of lightning and thunderboom. The sky is pink (though we have a lot of light pollution here so it's not that rare). I'm stocked up on food, have plenty of blankets and candles, and have no place to be, so am actually kind of looking forward to whatever happens this weekend. I just hope people stay safe.

I think I just saw a transformer blow, or whatever it's called ... the fireball with the big noise ... my power's still on, though. I guess there's some redundancy built in, but we're a step closer to black-out (Riverdale MD).

@krosseel have you looked or been outside in the last 5 hours? I'm in Adams Morgan too and it's quite insane. I'd say we've got close to 6" or more of snow-the sidewalks are blending in with the street. Snow is blowing hard and sideways.

Went out about 90 minutes ago to try and get ahead of things by digging out my car a bit. The wind is not messing around. Easily 8 inches out there then, more by now. Mad props to the buildings and grounds crew at my apt complex, they've been out with the snowblower all evening.

@ Hanz1 Don't read the radar...I already made that mistake...it's relative...so far CWG has been spot on, I'd suggest going with their map for now unless they change it...they tend to be very honest with their forecasts. Btw, Bob Ryan sticking to 20"-30"...I mean, that's quite a safe forecast...I still don't get the doubters...if this L really develops off the Outer Banks there's no doubt we'll continue to get slammed!

Sleeting moderately in Charlottesville with a few flakes mixed in. 6-7 inches of stuff on the ground, 1-2 of which is sleet.

I am just beginning to realize that, by being in C-ville, I have missed possibly the greatest snowstorm this area has had in nearly 250 years. And as a college-transplanted Fairfax native and a meteorology enthusiast, man, it hurts.

Carver9-
I must be up the hill...we've got snow! Can not even tell we cleared our sidewalks at 9p. Tried to measure but it's a tad chilly in jammies...dog even said "row-ray!" and stayed at the door. Don't want you to be left out...swing by in the am with your shovel!

About 11 inches has fallen in Camp Springs, and presently there appears to be more of a fine mist than anything frozen. It's like the Twilight Zone, in a way. The winds have really picked up from the NE. Visibility varies.

@BruinGirl2001, thanks for the note. I have been outside regularly and there has been a lot of variability in the wind and the precip. We are at about 9" where I am on Ontario Rd, and there is a real buildup of snow on the streets and sidewalk. Agree that this is a real mess. Beautiful, too!

Coming down in blankets in Derwood. The snow is drifting quite a bit, so take these measurements as you will, but I did about a dozen checks with the yard stick around the front of my house and surrounding areas and had no less than 14", with drifts around 17-20. And for fun I checked right up against the light post outside and it was 25". By the time it took me to come in and take off my snowy clothes and type this message, it's probably 26.

My friends called to check in after walking their dogs around their neighborhood in McLean, VA. Reports seeing a car with a young couple and baby driving around looking for something to eat "because we have a craving for some junk food." Fools. My friends wanted to slap the both of them across their thick heads.

11.5" in Chantilly / South Riding. I think I finished shoveling just in time as there really wasn't much wind while I was outside but now I can hear it from inside the house. 25-30" seems possible given the expected rates overnight.

Thanks. weather.com is showing we are only supposed to get two to three more inches by 5AM here in Manassas. Since NBC owns the WC now, they share a lot of weather tools. So, I was surprised Bob's forecast.

Just back from a mile and a half walk through the Military Road/Donaldson Run/Taylor Woods area of North Arlington, both on the neighborhood road, on Military Road and about a half mile through the woods. About 10-14 inches on the ground, depending on where you are. What's falling are tiny little flakes, almost sleet-like, that melt as soon as they hit you, but appear to be adding to the amount on the ground. No way this hits 24", even 20" will be a stretch unless it cools off quickly. Not much below 32F here, if at all.

Quick walk out to survey the scene in South Arlington. Two downed trees with many more heavily weighted down, one idiot driver, snow instantly reclaims sidewalk after snowblower, and probably around a foot of snow. This is already shaping up to be one epic snowstorm!

We are approaching a foot here in upper NW DC near Chevy Chase. Hopefully another 12 inches before the storm ends. There is some extremely heavy snow coming up from the south of DC again in the next hour.

We've lost power twice now for several minutes in Vienna. About 50 feet of my neighbor's cable TV wire came down in the street so I used a stick (just to be safe) to coil it up under the pole where the plows won't get hold of it. I'm on a snow emergency route, and the town has made at least 4 or 5 passes up and down the street with a pair of plows. Not that I intend to do any driving anytime soon. Snowing like crazy.

CWG~ It appears the end of precipitation shield is near southern VA. Will that eventually start to slow down over DC and start to pivot as the storm bombs out and slows down like we saw in the December storm. I guess we do still have all of the snow that goes out to St. Louis to come East. I'm sure we still have 6 hours of very heavy snow left and another 6-12 hours of the moderate snows.

why do my snow totals seem so much lower than everyone else's? I'm near the King Street metro- 6 inches on my balcony- now I suppose it could be lesser amounts if snow was blown off although it appears to be in a sheltered location...I haven't gone out and measured on the grass...

Just got back in from making the first pass with the blower and helping some neighbors clear where the plows piled snow in front of our driveways. We have 9-10" along the river here in the Tantallon section of Ft Washington. Winds are picking up and light snow mixing with sleet from time to time. Glad I did the drive and walks tonight to get the heavy wet snow cleared before it all freezes solid tonight!

@JamieYPotomac, yes, I'm throwing snowballs from the relative shelter of my back doorway. The snowfall has really picked up in intensity here. Cleared the topmost power line with snowball attempts #33 and 34 (kinda funny how that works), but I started picking up too much snow on my PJs before I was able to hit the cable TV line.

Snow is pouring down like a downpour of rain. I'm not sure of how much we've gotten here in downtown Frederick--there's no place good for me to measure, especially now that the wind's kicking up. But I would guesstimate we've got eight inches or so at least.

huh, I guess I did see a transformer blow. I've still got power, but the Pepco map is showing a few customers out just across the tracks and north a block or less. My fingers are crossed I keep power, especially since I can't seem to sleep.

@SnowLover (and others), don't worry, I'm seeing similar numbers around here in SW DC. Although the wind comes and goes, the actual snowfall is quite light and seems pretty minimal. I saw much heavy drops during the December storm, and I remember going to bed with more snow on the ground.

I'd say we have about 5 inches here, but that might even be generous. Can we really get 15 more overnight and tomorrow? I suppose it's possible.

this storm is certainly not underperforming! I don't know where you live but I've got probably 10-12in in fairfax city and the wind has been blowing snow around like crazy! it seems much more powerful than the dec storm

@snowlover2,
A couple possibilities. First, your balcony is probably sheltered and subject to some micro-level wind patterns, which means you might be not measuring levels consistent with your local area. Second, this storm is throwing out some wild accumulation variations, even with localities just a few miles apart. This is a very dynamic storm with wind flying in all sorts of directions locally. Snow totals could vary from one block to the next.

One foot of snow in Adams Morgan, with the winds howling at the window panes. Still, there's not enough wind to knock the heavy snow from the trees. I could barely knock the snow off branches with a broom.

I couldn't agree more. This is a much better and stronger storm than December. Official reports out of the DC area seem to be 10-12 inches; hours of HEAVY snow still on the way. Up here in Carroll County MD (Eldersburg) we are now approaching a foot. Not sure I have ever seen it snow this hard!

Darnestown MD reporting in with 14 inches at 12:30. Went to the Caps game BTW, still bitter I felt I had (to save my wife's $300 birthday present). Wild ride home; glad we had a Jeep Cherokee. Thunder snow up here too; expect to lose power tonight as we usually do. What an amazing storm; we are likely to never see the likes of this again.

I'm ready to say, with approximately 10-12 inches of snow on my back porch, if the snow stopped this minute, this was an impressive storm. Thunder, lightning, quality snow - all good.

From now until tomorrow, however, this is a serious situation.

The comments about "underperforming," from a scientific perspective, I understand - and whatever happens, I look forward to the debrief from CWG. But the storms of '83, '96, etc., were very stressful events for this area to get out from under. If this rivals storms in the last 80 years, well, I'd say any metropolitan area in the country would be challenged to deal adequately with this scenario.

Just came in from shoveling...I live just north of Annpolis (by about 2 or 3 miles) and have almost a foot of snow on my deck...Not nearly that amount on the sidewalk...Must have been because of the pavement been so much warmer the last couple of days. CWG...You guys rock! Have spent the day reading all the comments and your updates. As a teacher...I give you all an A+ thus far!

Garden Tables are not a good place to measure snow, even if they don't have holes. You will always get a much lower number. If you don't have a yard don't worry, you have more than 5 inches around your building.

@snowlover2 I think your porch might be sheltered. I'm at Post Carlyle (three-four blocks away from King St Metro) and when I took the dog across the street to play in the park it was really deep an hour ago. didn't have my ruler but it had to have been up closer to 10 inches or so. Somebody built an awesome snowman in our courtyard but the wind gusts has it starting to lean over...

Power went out for about a second here. I went out for another round with the shavel, and there is a bit of slight mixing in with the snow here in the City of Manassas. The wind is whipping around and it is difficult to figure out what is falling and what is just being blown around.

re: measurements in OT Alexandria - "up the hill" as it were (1200 block) I am getting a solid 8.5" @ 10:30pm - average of 6 measurements. A few inches more since then but no way I am going back out there tonight.

What's up with the weather channel's report out of BWI as of about 11PM? Only 6 inches? No way that is possible!http://www.weather.com/outlook/weather-news/severe-weather/articles/winter-powerhouse-news-developments_2010-02-05

We've got about ten inches on the ground now on the Hill, but the wind is blowing it all over the place, drifting it up against any vertical surface that's in the way. Nobody is going to be able to move their car without a lot of effort.

Camden--how much do you think you have? You're very close to me (I'm at 11th and Mass).

I'm having a heckuva time figuring out how to measure this. If I go onto any hard surface, I can't get much more than 5; but I know that's going to be low because it retained heat that melted the early snow. If I go to grassy areas, I get 6.5 but if I go to my roof and check one of the outdoor tables I tend to use for measurements, I'm at 9.5. Your guess for downtown?

PS: I voted for #3 early on, and 18 for DCA in the most recent poll. I hope you win with 23! I think we narrowly escaped the dreaded sleet--great job on that. May all your forecasts be so good!

Can't get outside my apartment to check...wife is asleep an I don't want to disturb her. Looks like the tables I can see out by the pool deck are covered halfway up their stem...that's likely a foot right there, though it's an exposed enough area we could have drifting. (I'm in Crystal City, and can see DCA right in this viewline when it's not a whiteout.)

@gfp76,
I don't think we are getting that dryslot (in DC). I think this storm is going to pivot right on top of us. The coastal low is deepening right now. That's why NWS keeps bringing up the Knickerbocker storm...

if your question were so "obvious," shouldn't someone have bothered to answer it by now?

a suggestion: measure the snowfall wherever you live, then compare that measurement to what was predicted on this website earlier today or yesterday. if that proves to be too difficult or taxing for you, then just continue to complain about how this once-in-a-lifetime weather event is not meeting your expectations.

Just made a quick run outside. 13.5" and heavy snow in Fairfax City. That's 5 inches since last shoveling at 930pm, but the wind may be affecting measurements at this point. Think I slightly chipped a bone in joint of my pinky shoveling earlier. Thank goodness for bourbon and that splint I saved from last broken finger!

But as of 1am in my part of Centreville, the wind has calmed and the snow is just coming down, hard and heavy. Cannot believe it.

Curiously, my sister, who lives on the Manassas side of Centreville, emailed me around 9pm to say their snowblower wasn't doing too well with the wet, heavy snow. She is only 3 1/2 miles south of me and the snow quality I have is nothing like she described. I've got the dense, powdery, low moisture stuff.

deveinmadisonva: We get it! If the storm doesn't look like this outside your window, it was a bust for you:

Pictured above is the whiteout that should be in Madison, VA apparently

Even though I'm 1000 miles away, I know from many a panicked nights of "OMG IT'S GONNA BE A BUST" that it's usually not and won't be this go around. Calm down. Go to sleep. Wake up refreshed in the morning to shovel your 20"+ of epic failure. Breathe...

Back to all snow in New Carrollton, and the winds are H O W L I N G just like a hurricane, getting stronger. 11.5 inches so far and snowing hard. Love it. Saw a plow go by about thirty minutes ago, and all that is under snow again. Got about an inch and a half in the past hour.

So far tonight, my apartment building has had two momentary power outages--but since this can happen in my building when the weather is fine, I don't necessarily think it's storm related.

There's a good-sized tree branch broken off the tree across the street from my apartment. Fortunately enough, it didn't take any power lines down with it. Otherwise, Frederick is just hunkering down for the next blast.

MY OPINION IS SUPER IMPORTANT I TYPE IN ALL CAPS PAY ATTENTION TO ME I AM RIGHT THIS STORM IS A FAILURE WHAT FAILURE MEANS DEPENDS ON THE PERSON BUT MY DEFINITION IS MOST IMPORTANT BECAUSE I TYPE IN ALL CAPS AND POST CONSTANTLY WHERE ARE MY FRIENDS I HAVE NONE SO I FIX MY AGGRESSIONS ON THIS THREAD OF OTHERWISE EXTREME WEATHER-LOVING PEOPLE WHO DON'T EXAGGERATE OR OVERREACT TO SOMETHING AS ULTIMATELY TRIVIAL AS A SNOWSTORM

Upstate Snow - ME!!! Well, not sure how long I'll actually make it, but I am admittedly too jacked up right now to go to bed. Feel the need to be vigilant. It's not like I'll be outside shoveling at 7am trying to get to work.

But I do have to get my bread dough going at some point in the morning. Well, maybe one more glass of wine, and about 20 refresh hits on CWG. That ought to tide me over to the am.

I never bring my laptop to bed, but I may have to tonight. Thank goodness for wireless. In fact, thank goodness for internet. A storm like this without instant communication would not be pleasant.

I presume you misunderstand me. I'm not complaining about this "once in a lifetime event." I have no desire to go outRside and measure and then analyze the deviation of my observations from the predictions of this website, etc.

Rather, I'm SIMPLY asking all the experts in these comments, and CWG themselves, IS THIS STORM MEETING EXPECTATIONS?

AND THAT QUESTION HAS NOT BEEN ANSWERED.

Look, I have no reason thato think , when we all wake up tomorrow, that we won't be right at expectations, but:

1) I think it's safe to assume we won't be at the top end, or above, right? Eg., we aren't going to see that 2 feet plus are we then? And,

2) Given that, Iaccording to the weather.com radar I'm seeing, there is rain right now in the DC area, I do wonder if we aren't looking at a severely underperforming event.'I'

I don't pretend to be an expert and I hope my relative pessimism is unwarranted. I'd just like to hear a discussion, from the experts, on the issue of whether this event is meeting expectations.

thank you for that nuanced, cogent, reasonable post. if your first two or three posts had been written like that, i never would have had to call you out. i appreciate your perspective and understand where you're coming from.

13" in Oakton - I was skeptical but can easily see reaching 20" (or more), given the conditions. I've shoveled twice so far and will probably keep going out, otherwise the job will be impossible - plus a large tree has already been brought down near us. I hope that's the only one.

kjm1971, I think from the "perfect storm" standpoint, this one could have even been a little better (assuming the storm fills in and pivots instead of leaving us high and dry) if only our temps were a little colder at the onset. This led to the hours and hours of snow that only produced 2 measly inches. That was a little bothersome.

I am beginning to think that the pivot is going to be centered over Baltimore more than the DC area, because I see no sign of filling in behind the precipitation shield that is now entering Fauquier County.

1) I think it's safe to assume we won't be at the top end, or above, right? Eg., we aren't going to see that 2 feet plus are we then? And,

2) Given that, Iaccording to the weather.com radar I'm seeing, there is rain right now in the DC area, I do wonder if we aren't looking at a severely underperforming event.'I'
===

Both of these are bad assumptions.

The first because it depends on the pivot. The upper end of the predicted amounts are not out of the question IF the costal low stalls and tosses the storm back at us. If it doesn't, we have what we have.

The second because the precip differentiation on the radar has been poor for this storm. There just seems to be so much moisture in the atmosphere that the software is being confused.

The first part of the storm has performed admirably. We'll see what the costal low and cold air from the NW brings.

There is no rain in the metro area although there may be some sleet in the eastern suburbs. Radars often improperly represent precipitation type.

The storm is pretty much going according to plan from our perspective. Our forecast was not for two feet plus but for 16-26" and we should hit that.

The one wild card is the dry slot which is working its way north and whether it will reach the metro area before the precipitation starts to pivot back. It's going to be a close call, and totals may be at the lower end of our range if we get dry slotted.

Just took a couple of measurements outside and it is 15-17 inches in bethesda. This is already as much as we received back in December. Curious as to other Bethesda measures and southern montgomery county.

roughly 12" inches in Glover Park; might be a bit of sleet but mainly snow. took a walk around the hilly neighborhook. like being in Vermont or even the Sierras. haven't seen anything like this since 1979 and if the dry slot doesn't stick around for too long, we should surpass that 1979 18.7" DCA total.

Centreville VA Entire block lost power at 10:20 came back on 1:30. Thanks Dominion!
What can you say......epic snowfall rates & big winds. We have some seriously overloaded & stressed trees (especially evergreens)out there. Blowing & drifting will now make accurate measurements impossible in my townhouse community, where we are rapidly running out of room to stack it up.
Although we've been outside a lot, we never saw or heard any t-snow.
Estimate of 14 inches of total snow so far based on measurement of fresh snow just outside door & front steps.
Snow has slowed from last few hours furious pace. Yeah, so like right now we're getting an inch every hour rather than 2.
31 degrees.
I suppose I could make coffee now if I wanted.
Kudos to CWG. This is such a big, bad storm & we all knew about it days in advance.

Here in Franconia we have lower totals, at least from walking about. 12" being generous. The bottom is ICE and the rest is gritty slick messy stuff. Very wet, but very frozen(dense). We are undecided at my house. S/O is saying 22" I think 16, but very hard to clean up. tysm HOA :(

The winds are going to get cranking soon so in reality, snow totals are going to be hard to figure in many locations, especially those under the blizzard warning. The storm is shifting energy, that dry slot is already filling in, by the time the vort max blow through here in a few hours every little amount of moisture will be wrung from the atmosphere and sitting as snow across the ground.

Firedragon47, where are you in C'ville that you have Dominion and not NOVEC?

Yes, it has slowed up to a more tolerable pace, but this stuff is so fine, it's hard to see at first. I'm glad it's let up a bit - the accumulation so far is intimidating enough to consider shoveling out of, let along much more.

The dreaded dry slot looks to be filling in as the storm intensifies offshore and slows. Hopefully quickly enough where we do not see too much of a lull in a snow in DC. However, all the moderate snows from upper level low in ohio valley need to come east so any lull would only last a few hours at most. Looks like we will be seeing snow for at least the next 12 hours.

I have been with the Capital Weather Gang since day one of the old site. After years of kidding and calling for RAIN...it is so nice to see a storm like this happen. It is a little scary however, I have never seen a snow storm in this area like this and the fact that another storm could hit us Tuesday and Wednesday next week and rumors of a fourth storm next weekend...we really could be in serious trouble. The economy in the area will come to a grinding halt!

Firedragon47, Bobosnow is a bit of a weather vigilante. Not sure what else I can do except periodically check outside, but the thought of going to bed seems, well, reckless and irresponsible on such a night!

I'm not too far from you - in Newgate, right off Braddock/Newton Patent/Awbrey Patent, just on the other side of Stone.

The living room carpet has been steamvac'd and the pasta sauce has been made, so not much else to do but watch the snow fall. Beats watching paint dry. But the cats threw in the towel and are sound asleep.

Perfect forecast fellas, Caps victory, Metro home, and 14-16 inches here in University Park. I have never seen snow accumulate so fast, an I am from Chicago. Clear off car. Shovel walk. Shovel driveway. Rinse, repeat, two more inches. The flakes are small but everywhere. It's not snowing, it's just that the air is snow. Great stuff. Fluffy stuff.

I was outside for four hours straight just shoveling and snow blowing away (We didn't get in until a little after 0100 HRS EST). My Mom and I were attacking the driveway, walkway, cars, and we managed to clear it all, only to have it all become recovered multiple times! We decided to let the street sidewalk fend for itself lol. It was fun being out in the snow at night though, we both loved it.

Here is the first photo which I uploaded (Good thing I was suited up, because the wind was whipping wet snow everywhere. I felt like a mountain climber struggling against spindrift):

BTW, the last time I measured we had 13 Inches of fresh snow. It was easily coming down at an inch an hour for most of the time I was outside. I would dare say that we have at least 16 Inches now, maybe more.

NWS radar showing signs of pivot and snow not disappearing anymore in southern PW county -- maybe we'll stay in precip in Fairfax. Also some backfill down to the Hook. And Intellicast Metro radar "warning cones" showing signs of precip moving towards NW now instead of NE. My weather station also showing more consistent winds from ENE instead of SE. Hopefully that is good sign for continued precip!

Just north of Del Ray - Just saw some major lightning + thunder to the northeast. Lots of wind & snow blowing around but, oddly, not much accumulation here - from my window it still looks like 6-7 inches tops. From the sound it makes hitting my window it seems like there might still be some sleet mixed in with the snow.

NW DC - Georgetown - 13" measured in open area, but wind makes any precise measurement impossible. I think the coastal low looks to deepen a little further north than anticipated - forecast for south and west of DC most likely to be impacted. The next few hours will see if we get the fill in south of DC to keep the heavy snow going - further north towards Baltimore looks more certain for prolonged heavy snow. Even if DC gets into the dry slot, the upper low to the west is tracking south of us and will keep the light to moderate snow into tomorrow. If the coastal low moves slow enough, strengthens, and keeps us in the heavy snow bands, totals of 2 feet+ for DC are still in play - sleet from early today is all snow and with the colder air, liquid to snow ratios should go up from here.

@manatt, 13" in G'town sounds right. I measured 12" in Glover Park about an 80 mins. ago. agree it's difficult to measure. it took me about five times to come up with a figure I thought was about right.

Update: I just went back outside with my other dog, and there's already a solid 2-3 Inches MORE accumulation on the spots we had continuously cleared until roughly an hour ago. This is a beautiful storm, and I'm set to make a freaking Igloo tomorrow lol (I just hope that the power stays on, especially so I can keep logging onto CWG).

Also, one observation, the flakes were extremely wet when I first went out at 2100 HRS EST, but by the time we came in, they were much drier.

Our lights keep flickering, even without a massive amount of wind. My HD is out on the SAT, and now the SD is even bugging somewhat (The dish must be BURIED). What an adventure Snowmageddon truly is ;-)

Centreville VA Snowfall rate fallen off here to fine steady flakes.
Think I will try to get a few hours of rest.....big question now is will this storm get a huge second wind in the next few hours & give us another foot+ (thus smashing some of these records we've been reading so much about) before it's all over tomorrow PM? Is CWG still on the bandwagon for 16++ at DCA?

Moderate snow here in upper NW DC near Chevy Chase with about 14 inches measured at 3am. The storm is near northern outerbanks south of virginia beach with 989MB. In comparison the 1993 storm was down to 960 and the 2003 storm was 1011 and the 1996 storm was 980, which this supposed to get down to later this morning. This is a very strong blizzard and it looks like DC got the pivot point just in time to continue snowfall for another 12 hours. The winds are out of NE now which is a good sign because the storm will start pulling in cold air and wrap in moisture from atlantic so the snow ratios will be higher and snow will accumuluate faster.

NWS does not think D.C. will break the Knickerbocker Storm at this point but will break the record for National Airport. We do have until around 2pm for additional snow with the pivot as well as energy coming from Kentucky.

Next week we have to look out for more snow or rain/snow which looks to bring us another significant round of measurable snow!!!

Reston, VA, I am now measuring 18". Given the fact that we had a maximum 1.5" snow base leftover from the previous storm, this conservatively places the current snowfall so far at this locale at 16.5". We are definitely on the way to beating the December 19th storm (Where I measured 19" of total accumulation). I wouldn't be surprised if we hit a solid two feet worth of snowfall by the time all is said and done here (Even at 1" an hour, it is completely within range, and so far I have not witnessed any accumulation rates below such since at least 2100 HRS EST (0200 Z), 05FEB10).

Btw, some of the drifts are easily 2.5 FT deep already, and I saw a few which I believed were close to 3 FT. The piles of shoveled snow are 4 FT. + right now, by the end of snowfall clearing, I estimate they will be upwards of 5 FT. + here.

I am here looking and monitoring this storm as a snow lover/fan and can't help to ignore the fact that the storm is leaving the area soon. I read about the pivot point but (pardon my ignorance), what do you mean? How will it not just keep going north? did this storm go further north then expected? Are we going to see a stop in the snow? what about this low pressure center CWG posted earlier about?

Whether or not we see much more heavy snow pivoting in from the low off the east coast is debatable. However, there is hope of some more moderate snow to continue. We may get dry slotted for a time. That also remains to be seen.

Latest from the NWS:
HV TWEAKED THE SNOW TOTALS BACK FURTHER. I'D HEARD ON TV LAST EVE
TALK OF HITTING THE NUMBERS OF THE FAMED DC KNICKERBOCKER STORM -
BUT THAT IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. ON THE OTHER HAND BOTH DC AND
BALT BROKE DAILY SNOWFALL RECORDS FRI...BOTH RECORDS OVER 110 YRS
OLD...SO THIS CAN STILL BE CALLED A RECORD BRKG STORM.

ON RDR THERE'S A VERY DEFINITIVE BACK EDGE SHOWING UP ACROSS
CENTRAL VA. HOWEVER FOR SNOW LOVERS I DON'T THINK THIS MEANS AN
END TO THE SNOW. 850 AND 500 MB ANLYS BOTH SHOW DEEPENING UPR LOW
OVR MID MS VALLEY WL BE TRACKING ACROSS SRN VA TDA. HVIER PCPN MAY
MOVE OUT TO SEA BY MID MRNG HOWEVER APRCHG UPR LOW WL LV MUCH OF
THE CWA IN LGT/MDT SNOWFALL INTO AT LEAST MID AFTN. XPCT PCPN TO
CHG BACK OVER TO SNOW IN ST. MARY'S TOO.

Just saw lightning here in Laurel, but didn't hear any thunder. The people still fretting about a bust are obviously not seeing out their windows what I'm seeing out of mine. The snow and wind are coming down pretty furiously, and there is already a ton on the ground. (I'm on the 6th floor and I have the flu... I'm not sure going town to measure would be very prudent!)

@ pjdunn1, I'm counting on the Easterly movement of the system over the open bodies of water, to start drawing more moisture back into the action. Whether this prevents a dry gap, I have no idea, but it might strengthen the tail-end (Let's get a giant Nor'Easter pumping here!).

5am-Snow is moderate here again after light for an hour about 16-18 inches here in upper NW DC near Chevy Chase Village. Some very heavy snow is moving into northern part of DC and Bethesda/Sliverspring area soon from Northeast up toward Baltimore. Heavy snow bands are now moving southwest toward DC and low intensifies and rotates moisture in from ocean.

5am-Snow is moderate here again after light for an hour about 16-18 inches here in upper NW DC near Chevy Chase Village. Some very heavy snow is moving into northern part of DC and Bethesda/Sliverspring area soon from Northeast up toward Baltimore. Heavy snow bands are now moving southwest toward DC and low intensifies and rotates moisture in from ocean.

Moderate snow has started here in Adams Morgan again. Was shoveling the relatively heavy snow, accumulations of new snow 16". It seems that our neighborhood in DC has already met CWG's lower end of forecast snow.

I'm confused by the storm totals reported as the records. From the weekend storm a few years back (2005?), I measured 32" from that one.

The Knickerbocker storm, as far as I'm concerned has been passed several times in the past 20 years, I shoveled them.

When I got out in about 2 hours to start clearing the snow, I expect to see around 18-20". And if get another 6", then we'll be right at 2" -- hardly a record for my property, but certainly bigger than any of the official records.